Air China inks codeshare deal with China Express

30 August 2014

Air China and China Express have signed a codeshare cooperation agreement in the city of Guiyang , Guizhou province on August 29, 2014 , and the two carriers will start to share codes on each other’s selected flights from September 1, 2014 .

According to the agreement, the two carriers will connect the cities of Chongqing, Guiyang and Dalian to their respective networks. With the cooperation, Air China will be put its code CA on 32 routes operated by China Express, which will extend its route network to the second-tier and third-tier cities around Chongqing as well as in provinces of Guizhou and Liaoning Province . At the same time, China Express will put is G5 code on 30 routes operated by Air China, which will extend its network to most of China’s big and medium-sized cities. Currently, Air China operates over 50 routes to Chongqing , Guizhou and Liaoning , giving passengers easy access to most of the Chinese provincial capitals via Chongqing , Guiyang and Dalian .

Lou Yongfeng, Managing Director, International Cooperation Department, Commercial Committee, said, “Air China has always attached great importance to establishing partnerships with other carriers. It is our hope that our codeshare cooperation with China Express will further expand the networks of both sides and make it easier for passengers around the country to travel to and from the regions around Chongqing , Guizhou and Liaoning .”

Luo Tong, Vice President of China Express, said, “The cooperation not only connects the networks of the two carriers, but also make a trunk route carrier and a feeder carrier complement each other. The feeder market will enter a fast track by benefiting from the well-established trunk routes. So the point-to-point operations of the feeder market will be supported by trunk route operations. China Express is quite committed to making medium- and small-sized cities more accessible, and the most effective way of doing that at the lowest social costs is to fully take advantage of the network of trunk routes to grow the feeder market.”

Air China is China’s only national flag carrier and also the largest carrier between China and Europe and between China and America. Its route network serves over 162 destinations in 32 countries and regions worldwide. China Express is a carrier operating feeder routes for passenger and cargo transportation. The codeshare cooperation between Air China and China Express blazes the trail for partnership between trunk route carrier and domestic feeder carrier, make more products available to the domestic market, giving passengers in more travel options, promote the cultural exchanges of second-tier and third-tier cities with other parts the country, facilitate regional economic development, and further promote the development of China’s feeder route market.